This invention relates to a ventilation control apparatus for use with a building ventilation system in a building.
Current livestock ventilation systems have many inadequacies primarily due to the fact that such ventilation systems merely draw a ventilating air flow through the building. Attempts to control the air flow have included regulating the speed of fans employed to induce an air flow as well as employing complex electromechanical vents to regulate the air flow. Such control devices are undesirable in some circumstances due to the complexity of regulating such control devices.
For example, regulating the air flow employing only fans lacks the ability to direct air flow in specific directions through a facility or to control the velocity of the air flow coming through an uncontrolled aperture. Mechanical vents were employed to regulate the direction and velocity of the air flow, however, controlling the velocity of the air flow resulted in changing the direction due to the mechanical characteristics of such prior art vents.
Regulation of livestock ventilation is an important factor in raising livestock in a healthy and efficient manner. For example, in a poultry building it is important to ventilate all of the poultry cages to extract the dust and the odor and substance of the poultry manure as well as provide fresh respiratory air. This is also very important for the health of people working in the building. While it is important to provide cooling air, it is also important to avoid dramatic temperature changes which may cause temperature shock or stress to the poultry or other livestock. Therefore, as well as controlling the velocity and direction, it is important to facilitate the mixing of cooler intake air with that of existing ambient air.
Further, many prior art systems are inefficient in that they require a sufficient amount of energy to create a substantial pressure differential to induce air flow through the building. For example, conventional ventilation systems require a pressure differential of .07 inches of water in order to achieve sufficient turbulence, volume and mixing of the air in the building. The requirement to create such a pressure differential imposes requirements on fans and hence electrical demand in order to achieve this pressure differential. The demand for energy for ventilation results in additional costs to the livestock producer.
Since efficiency in livestock production is extremely important, it is desirable to produce a system which is uncomplicated including minimal electromechanical components, simplification of the essential components, and reduction in operation expenses.